Joaquin Phoenix and John C. Reilly Are Hired Guns in Trailer for Western Comedy ‘The Sisters Brothers’

Two new westerns coming out this year are looking to turn the genre upside down. There’s Robert Pattinson’s deadpan comedy Damsel this summer, and then there’s The Sisters Brothers, another dark comedic take on the American frontier from French filmmaker Jacques Audiard.

Set in 1851 Oregon, Joaquin Phoenix and John C. Reilly play a pair of brothers in the killing business, but this is nothing like the last hired gun Phoenix played. The two are Eli and Charlie Sisters, or better known around town as the Sisters Brothers. After scaring a woman into opening her safe, the duo’s next job is to track down and kill a prospector (Jake Gyllenhaal doing a funky accent). There’s also a chemist played by Riz Ahmed who’s come up with an innovative way to mine for gold.

The wacky tone of the trailer is certainly far from the much heavier and intense fare Audiard is best known for, like 2010’s exceptional A Prophet, the not-so-light melodrama Rust and Bone in which Marion Cotillard loses her legs, and 2015’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner Dheepan. But I’m always up for an innovative take on the western, especially if it means we get to see Phoenix flex his wackier side. The Sisters Brothers hits theaters this fall.